Life in multi-ethnic Australia helped decouple a former skinhead from neo-Nazi groups as he discovered the brotherhood was “a load of lies”.
The unnamed witness offered his experience to the Royal Commission into Anti-Semitism and Social Cohesion on Wednesday, after proceedings began with a rebuke of comments made in the media.
The witness said a somewhat isolated suburban upbringing as the child of British migrants pushed him toward right-leaning skinheads.
Those friendships, a period of "upheaval" in his life and conflict with a minority during his time at a defence force helped solidify a hardline supremacist stance.
But he said working in the wider community eventually helped him leave a neo-Nazi organisation, first for one year, and then in 2013 for good.
“I took a good hard look, and I’d also been doing some work in different places where I had been mixing with people of all different ethnicities,” he said.
“Some of these people of different ethnicities were the people that actually had my back and that showed some true brotherhood to me, and I decided that, yeah, (neo-Nazism) was all a load of lies.
“I love Great Britain as much as I love Australia. I still identify as very British, you know, but I also am very fervid in the belief that that's got nothing to do with with racist beliefs or anything like that.”
He suggested early intervention and openness to other cultures could have changed his course as a younger man.
Earlier on Wednesday, Commissioner Virginia Bell reproached the authors of “truly abusive, Islamophobic emails” directed at a protest group’s counsel after Tuesday’s hearing.
Ragni Mathur SC asked a Jewish leader about the timeline of Israel’s response to Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack in the context of a protest held at the Sydney Opera House two days later.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Alex Ryvchin accused the counsel of “clickbait theatrics and gratuitous slurs against Israel”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns later told News24 Ms Mathur’s questioning was “disappointing”.
Ms Bell, without naming Mr Ryvchin, defended Ms Mathur who “did not hijack this royal commission” and said counsel appearing should not become subject of attacks.
The hearing was also told the aesthetics, language and grievances of the radical right were capable of enticing youth without espousing a traditional political ideology
Modern neo-Nazism is more “perhaps narcissistic, more focused around their identity building” than before, counter-terrorism expert Julian Droogan said.
Online content from groups such as involuntarily-celibates or manosphere creators was among the exploitative movements responsible, he said.
Political sociologist Joshua Roose said anti-Semitism and blaming Jews for grievances was alluring to the already-disenfranchised.
Individual circumstances - financial, romantic and broader troubles - “pushed” many across the political spectrum to anti-Semitic narratives, he said.
Hearings will continue on Thursday.
